The Night Has Come To Hold Us Young
by Rashaka
Summary: Two lives, from the end of the war to the discovery of passion. Ever after is not a destination but a road we all must travel. REVISION UPDATE! Drabbles are being revised and expanded.
1. Before: I Don't Wanna Wait

SUMMARY: Two people, from the end of the war to the discovery of passion. Ever after is not a destination but a road we all must travel. AU from early season 2.

**08/29/10 - REVISED VERSION!** This story started in early season 2 of ATLA, before even Toph was introduced, as an end-of-the-war future romance AU. Very AU. It is a series of drabbles, some quite short and some longer. I am **revising the chapters to give a bit more depth, to fix minor errors**, and to remind myself all the details of what's going on. After I'm done replacing these, I will update with at least two more chapters. Eventually this would have approximately 20 or so drabbles remaining.

Fanfic title comes from The Smashing Pumpkins song, "Thru The Eyes Of Ruby," my vote for possibly the most poetic lyrics they've ever written.

_Paula Cole-"I Don't Wanna Wait"_

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**Before**

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Two weeks before the final battle Katara learns their father will not be returning home from the war. A letter is tossed into her hands from a farmer on village cart; it catches on her fingernails and when she reads the missive inside, the dry paper rips halfway through. An hour of grief, two at the most, and then they are moving again, footsteps from sand to deck, because their father is dead from war and the war does not care.

She and Sokka accept this because acceptance is all they have time for.

The century of strife is almost ended; the rise of the Avatar is near complete. Space for private grief exists between falling to a cot and rising with the foghorns, but still the siblings sacrifice sleep to spend their nights talking. They reminisce about tigerseal pelts and canoe rides, and in between the memories they console as only family has the power to do.

"I miss his hands." Holding up her own in the candle light, she finds them insufficient. "His hands were always warm."

Her brother leans his head against her shoulder and says, "I miss the songs. I keep thinking that we will never hear him sing to us again."

"I don't remember all of them," whispers Katara. "I should have listened better."


	2. Before: Dakota

_Stereophonics - "Dakota"_

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**Before**

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Three days before the final battle Prince Zuko learns that his mother is dead. The letter comes from his uncle, already situated deep in the belly of the capitol city, and it unfolds in Zuko's hand like a delicate lace. Dribbles from the summer rains have leaked through the messenger's parcel to dampen the vellum, but the message of death persists. Apologetic words swell up between runs of black ink and the burns his fingers leave wherever they touch.

Fire Lady Ursa, daughter of Roku, archer and politician, has flown over the Great River of Fire and reached a distant shore where spirits walk and sunset never ends. The how and the why of her journey don't matter yet; they are mere details to accentuate the guilt he already assumes is his father's. The woman sleeping in the tower has slipped into death, and the Fire Nation has nothing with which to hold him back.

Zuko reads the letter twice, then he lights his hand on fire with a prayer and knows at last he is free.


	3. Amid: I Don't Know

_Starsailor - "I Don't Know"_

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**Amid**

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Water rages through the gates of the outermost wall, and Katara leaps from Appa's back to ride the storm it brings. She is a wave daughter of Sedna, a descendant of the manta-whale tamers, and her task is to clear the way.

There is no fire hot enough to stop a tide. Her team scatters, great arms of seawater carrying each warrior forward. So sudden is their onslaught, and so overwhelming are the waters they command, that their enemies tremble and pray for the salvation of a comet that will never arrive.

The streets of the nobility are flooded while their families watch from foot of the volcano, and she relishes every destructive swipe of her element. Soldiers oppose her - little men and women with their little weapons in their grip - but Katara the Brave is a master bender, and she will remind this city that it owes its wealth to the sea. What gifts the ocean gives, her children can take back.

In the air above her and around her the klaxons are ringing, and Katara sends a geyser higher than any rooftop, higher than any tower. Up to a cloudy, storming sky it rises for all to see. "Go," she whispers. "Go now."

The first battery of resistance is washed away, and Aang's hunt for the Fire Lord begins.


	4. Amid: The Way You Are

_46bliss - "The Way You Are"_

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**Amid**

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The man that throws open the doors of Ozai's great hall looks like a man who might be dragged out of it instead. First, he has clothed himself in a mess of black and green; the stain of road life cling to every fold. On closer look one counts the splashes of blood_—his torso, his legs, his brow—_and the way his sleeves have been burned all the way to his shoulders.

His face is an odd one, both compelling and ugly. His hair is dark as soot and short as slave's, without even a respectable peasant's knot. The golden gaze he wields in unremarkable but for the way it settles on the throne.

Outside the walls the war echoes. Inside, a shaky-kneed minister faces the intruder. "Who are you?"

The invader ignores Ozai's courtier. "Where is Azula?" he demands, and the Minister of Interior Commerce steps back once in surprise. The voice is young, so very young for its wildness! The man, the boy, sees the change in his audience and it raises his hackles. "Azula, old fool! She and I have business."

But the old fool thinks he's made him now, that this stranger isn't the barbarian terror but a youth to be commanded. "We will not betray the princess!" he snaps, and points a sagging finger. "Who are you, boy? What do you think you're playing at, invading the Fire Lord's palace and desicrating his sanctified hall with your presence?"

The young man doesn't cower; he grins, and it takes five years of anger off his face. He slides his gaze from the empty chair to the minister, then up to the vast and tapestried ceiling.

"I am Zuko, son of Ursa, grandson of Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Azulon."

The flame of every chandelier in the room surges at once.

"I am your Fire Lord."


	5. End: 40 ft

_Franz Ferdinand- "40 ft."_

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End

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"Face it Needles, you're out of weapons."

Katara of the Water Tribe is weeping, but she tightens the ice around Ty Lee's elegant, dancer neck another fraction. She had believed that she hated the gymnast girl, but that ice could just as easily been earth or fire around Katara's own neck. She thinks they are the same age, or close enough. Did Ty Lee's father go to war ? Blinking away hesitation and looking from her captive to her enemy, Katara forces the next sentence out with as much power as her voice can carry. "We've breached the last wall and Aang's inside! Surrender."

Mei of the Fire Nation watches her world collapse under the swaying dangle of Ty Lee's feet. In seconds the very last thing she loves will be gone.

She's been weeping, herself, but she is a child of nobility and nobles are never silent in their anger. Twisting her hands at empty air the once-stoic Mei screams with words what she can't express without knives: "I'll kill you, you bitch! You're a walking corpse, I swear it."

"Another step and she won't breathe!"

The last signal horn trumpets across the city, and both girls jerk to see a squad of rebel soldiers swarm the inner garden.

Ty Lee whimpers, and her kicks become twitches.

Mei throws herself to the grass and surrenders.


	6. End: Long Time Coming

_Delays - "Long Time Coming"_

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End

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Princess Azula wakes to find her limbs locked in crystal bindings. She's on the low terrace of the southern wing, not far from the spot where blinding pain and dart in the neck had darkened her vision mid-step. Azula has never liked this terrace; the walk was too exposed, and the trees where she'd climbed and broken her rib as a child were spread too thin to give protection. Yet it's the fastest way from the southern wing to the armory, and she needs-she needs-

"Wake up, Azula," her brother repeats from above. "Wake up and look at me."

She gasps, tries to blink away the triumphant look on Zuko's face and retrieve her arms, but they refuse to move under the green rock. Prince Zuko smirks—he's never been a gracious winner. "You like those? They're a gift from the King of Omashu. He says hello, and wants me to tell you personally that he's taken his city back."

Azula tries again to pull herself free, but the crystal is impervious to heat. It swallows her fire and shines regardless. "Well," she hisses, "If it isn't my brother the assassin. No mask? You do me a disservice."

"The Blue Spirit is dead." Zuko takes her cheeks in both hands and kisses her forehead, hard and fast. "The only person I've murdered is you."

As he steps back, Azula feels a trickle of blood slide down one cheekbone. Her eyes catch a glimmer on Zuko's finger: the ring she tipped with poison this very morning. She blinks and sees it as it lay hours ago, a small circle of silver on her vanity table.

"You were the best of teachers, little sister."


	7. After: Ocean City Girl

_Ivy - "Ocean City Girl"_

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**After**

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The battle is over, and tonight Zuko's reign begins. Propelled by curiosity and that particular energy born from exhaustion, Katara walks the house of Sozen, Azulon, and Ozai. Tapestries of great battles and worse massacres hang in the every corridor, bleeding between the threads. They drape from the ceilings and across the walls, as if to blanket the palace inhabitants in a world of glory and war.

She tries to imagine Prince Zuko living here, and the Zuko that answers her thoughts is the not the young man Katara fought and bled beside, but the raging child she met so long ago. Unifying those two images gets easier the more she sees of his homeland, and that thought turns her stomach in a way decorations never could.

The throne room, when she finds it, is as vast as the Northern Tribe's but with less than half the light. Columns guide supplicants to a pool that stretches like a moat before the Fire Lord's gilded seat. Katara assumes it must be water until the smell hits, and then she remembers the prince's campfire stories. On nearby flags she sees evidence of oil drops, staining them an ever more vivid red.

Though the sun has baked through the roof and she stands surrounded by crimson, bronze, and amber, Katara finds the whole place cold.


	8. After: Sunny Came Home

Shawn Colvin- "Sunny Came Home"

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**After**

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The period immediately following the coup is one of the most tumultuous emotional experiences of Zuko's life. The port and its roads are the first to fall, but securing them gives a sure path through the city and up to the walls. The waterbenders with their stolen ocean flood the whole course, and the warriors of earth with their tiny, terrifying child-general follow in the wake to surprise and overwhelm the three gates.

Inside the prince's forces meet with General Iroh's rebel guards, and after finding Azula he feels the gnawing pain in his lungs give way to hope. They gain control of the palace within hours, and the city proper within a day. With his uncle and the Avatar at his side, nothing stands in the way of Prince Zuko's birthright, or the changes he intends to bring.

The pride and relief that settles over his heart is tempered by the knowledge that his three closest family members have died in a single week, one at his own hand. That is a weight Zuko will hold close for the rest of his days: Azula's death is a lesson in the frailty of power, and his part in it is a reminder that honor is a goal to be sought.

It is not, and never was, a state of being.


	9. Conversations: Gravity, Falling Down

UPDATE ALERT! I'm revising and resposting this whole fic. I encourage you to reread the first 8 chapters, as they have turned into double-drabbles as well as having several mechanical and continuity errors fixed. I realized this was necessary before I could post new chapters. Yes, this is one zutara fic that won't be left to die alone.

I thank everyone for their encouraging, supporting, and inspiring reviews in the last two years! It lifts me up to know that so many people enjoyed this, and I hope you will do so again as I repost longer drabbles and then post newer chapters in a bit. Thanks gais!

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_Alejandro Escovedo - "Gravity/Falling Down Again"_

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**Conversations**

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"You want to leave right now? But it's only been two days! And we just ended a war, don't we get some time to rest just a little?"

"I can't stay here, Sokka! Everywhere I look I think about the war. All the people I attacked with my waterbending... I can't just stay here and make nice with their relatives. Now that it's finally over, thinking about it is the last thing I want to be doing."

"But…what about Aang? The Avatar has to stay here, you know that. He can't leave until Zuko's hold on the throne is secure, and he has to mediate between the Fire Nation and the other nations."

"Aang doesn't need us to help him anymore; he's got the world to worry about, and everyone wants to be part of his goals now. He won't be alone with Zuko he-Oh Sokka. ...You want to stay, don't you?"

"Katara...I don't...and-and Aang…"

"Sokka, it's okay. It's really okay."

"It's not okay. Never mind. I'm going with you tomorrow."

"Not a chance, big brother. I've decided. You're staying here with Aang. Give him a familiar face to trust besides the Angry Jerk. And you can learn about those engines you're so interested in. Steal us a state secret or two?"

"Katara, I can't let you go home alone."

"It'll be okay."

"You're the only family I have left besides Gran-Gran. What if something happens and I'm not there?"

"Don't be a fishhead. I'll just be going home; you'll be the one living on an island full of Firebenders. You want to be here, and Zuko and Aang could certainly use you here. I want to go home, and you know what I can do for our village now that I'm a Master Waterbender. This is better, for now."

"We've never split up before. We did this together. This was our journey, for both of us."

"The war's over, Sokka, and journeys have to end."


	10. Conversations: Sway

UPDATE ALERT AGAIN! I'm revising and re-posting this whole fic. I encourage you to reread the first 9 chapters, as they have doubled in relative size, and will continue to do so. Thanks again for all the supportive comments!

This is still an AU from the beginning of season 2, but I will gradually incorporate broader elements. You don't have to know every detail to understand that some things in this universe are different:

- Zuko used the Blue Spirit for much worse than just stealing  
- Ursa was banished to a tower on the outskirts of the Fire Nation, and Zuko barely learned of her existence from Iroh, before being informed of her death  
- Toph joined the war later, still without permission from her parents, and only befriended Aang after fighting in battle together  
- Katara, upset over the death of her father, was more ruthless in battle; she feels guilt over her violence and dislikes any reminder of her part in it  
- Sokka, never having rejoined with Suki, latches on to Zuko's rulership as a new mission in the absence of a parent to return to  
- Aang killed the Fire Lord Ozai before the comet could arrive

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_The Perishers - "Sway"_

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**Conversations**

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"I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Aang told me. He said you just wanted to go home...as soon as possible."

"I haven't been to the South Pole in almost a year. I miss it. And...I'm tired of all of this, Zuko."

"I see. Well, homesickness is something I do understand. Is there anything you want? Your village was so small-is there anything your people need that I could give them?"

"Most of the things we've lost can be rebuilt now that our men have returned, and with the Northern Tribe there to help us. With more hands to hunt and weave we'll grow strong again. We don't need Fire Nation charity."

"Wait, stop. I didn't mean to offend you. Reparations aside, Katara, you and the Water Tribe have helped me regain my throne. You ended the war. ...You've been my friend. I think."

"Of course I'm your friend, don't be dense."

"Well, can I offer you anything? Textiles? Livestock?"

"Maybe..."

"What is it?"

"I guess there is something. You have records, don't you? Records from centuries before the war, when our people were allies."

"The two libraries of the palace and the temple are huge, and they both sit above the flood lines. I don't think they were damaged in the power struggle, though I haven't actually checked yet. I imagine that's not the case for the South Pole."

"No. We have a primarily oral tradition, but we did have one family who kept the birth records and trade records of my village and at least six of the villages to the east and south. Their house burned down about thirty years ago in a raid, and the family has only one survivor who can treat the scrolls for preservation properly. She's been able to rewrite many of the family histories, though not so far back as we once had, and probably less accurately."

"Your history of commerce is completely lost, isn't it?"

"Yes. Without regular trade in the last century, and with our foundation gone, we'll be on weak footing when we rejoin the post-war economy. That scary Earthbender, Toph, gave me the idea over lunch yesterday. Her family knows all about this stuff. If we had some knowledge of the past to compare with the current trade we've done in the Earth Kingdom, then we could put a fair price on our exports."

"I'll have my scribes begin to copying our texts of the Water Tribe immediately. I'm certain we have some religious and cultural texts as well, I remember reading a book of water spirits when I was a kid. Agni knows how many maps my father hoarded. It should take about, hm, three or four months to deliver the duplicates to your village."

"Thank you, Lord Zuko."

"Zuko. You can have that at least."

"Well, thank you. . .Zuko."


End file.
